A GPRS network can be formed using a mobile radio system as a backbone network, such as, for example, a Global System for Mobiles (GSM) or a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network. GPRS as developed by the 3rd Generation Project Partnership (3GPP) provides support for packet-orientated services and attempts to optimise network and radio resources for packet data communications such as for example Internet Protocol (IP) communications. The GPRS provides a logical architecture which is related to a physical communications architecture of a mobile radio system.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a body, which is responsible for developing internet protocols for facilitating communications via the internet. For example, a well established internet protocol is the internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) which has been developed and standardised for personal computers to access the internet. The IETF has also developed a further standard known as the internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) which provides an improvement with respect to the IPv4 in terms of facilitating mobile communications and increased addressing options for user equipment. Whilst there are similarities between IPv4 and IPv6, a packet radio network which has been developed to support IP4 cannot communicate internet packets according to the IPv6.